NOORo III solar thermal tower power plant in Morocco
Together with partners, DLR has investigated the potential of the Middle East and North Africa for the production of hydrogen and synthetic fuels from renewable resources in the MENA-Fuels Study. The use of solar energy will play an important role, for example in the form of concentrated solar power.
Production costs for synthetic fuels by power generation technologies
For the MENA-Fuels study, researchers divided the whole MENA region into many small areas and calculated the individual costs. This had not been done before
Roadmaps for the production of sustainable synthetic fuels in the MENA(*) area for the decarbonisation of traffic in German
*MENA: Middle-East and North Africa
Duration: 1.10.2018 – 31.3.2022
The anchoring of the contractual objective to limit the global rise in temperature well below two degrees Celsius ("Paris Agreement") is a milestone in international climate policy and requires the timely development of strategies that provide solutions on how effective energy reduction paths can be implemented. The decarbonization of the energy system plays a central role here. But also the transport sector has to be reflected in the strategies for decarbonization due to its high share of GHG emissions.
Based on the goal of extensive decarbonisation of economic systems by 2050 and the previous low contribution of the transport sector to this, the question of the possible role and implications of the use of electricity-based fuels in Germany arises. In this study, the target systems in Germany (with an outlook on the EU) are considered and the need for synthetic fuels is analyzed (with a corresponding demand for electricity-based basic chemicals on the part of industry). On the other hand, possible transformation paths to achieve these goals are designed and the role the MENA countries could play in supplying Germany (and the EU) with synthetic fuels or their intermediate products are shown. Accordingly, the study consists of two mutually influencing parts.
In the first part, the demand for synthetic fuels is analyzed and evaluated. It includes a multi-criteria evaluation of various technical routes and individual technologies in order to be able to compare advantages and disadvantages of individual solutions with regard to Germany and the MENA region; the analysis of the generation and application potential of synthetic fuels for Germany using an integrated energy system model and based on cost-potential curves for the MENA countries and the results of the multi-criteria assessment; the integration of the possible industrial demand for electricity-based basic chemicals (e.g. ethylene produced from electricity-based methane or methanol as the basis for the production of olefins or ammonia as a raw material for fertiliser production) to utilize synergy effects in the entire energy system; the simultaneous consideration of a much higher potential demand from the entire EU, as well as modeling of the corresponding infrastructure requirements. A distinction is made here as to what proportion of the required quantities of electricity, hydrogen, intermediate products such as renewable methanol and the end product fuel in Germany and which could be produced in the MENA region.
In the second part, the MENA transformation pathways are developed, evaluated and assessed. The technical cost-potential curves for the range of the above-mentioned products in all MENA countries are analyzed; the infrastructure requirements and risk factors and the merging of technical potentials into risk-assessed potentials are integrated. Initial and implementation conditions as well as obstacles and driving forces and actors involved in selected countries of the MENA region are also analyzed. The market mechanisms with regard to the possible trade in the above-mentioned products between the MENA countries and Germany, taking into account the interests of third parties, are considered. Selected politically relevant macroeconomic, socio-economic and environmental effects (including employment, energy and emissions-related effects) of the various production and import strategies shown on Germany and the MENA countries are assessed and analyzed. For this purpose, concrete starting points for the medium-term development of potential for German companies in the MENA region are identified in order to develop proposals for promising demonstration projects to develop future business areas together with German industry.
The results of the study are different paths for supplying Germany (and EU) with synthetic fuels or intermediate products and their chronological order. The project partners thus provide orientation knowledge for projects that consider the MENA region as a resource supplier for synthetic fuels.
